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The government is paying €88m to rent private properties - but it also owns almost 100 empty buildings

Fianna Fáil has called it ‘ridiculous’ that one will be liable for the vacant sites tax next year.

FIANNA FÁIL HAS criticised the government for spending almost €88 million a year on rental properties, despite owning a number of vacant properties.

The figures were released to the party’s spokesperson on Public Expenditure an Reform, Barry Cowen through a parliamentary question by Minister Paschal Donohoe.

A total of 96 State-owned properties are currently unoccupied, although a number of these are being prepared for alternative uses.

Of the 96:

  • 50 are former garda stations
  • 23 are being transferred to local authorities or other State bodies
  • 15 are being examined “for alternative State use or are being retained for strategic purposes”
  • 7 are being prepared for disposal
  • 1 is under consideration for community use.

It cost more than €580,000 a year to maintain these properties, the figures reveal.

A bulk of the €87.7 million paid to private landlords is spent in Dublin, where the figure stands at €68,227,241.

The total number of properties being rented by government across the country stands at 395. Two are currently unoccupied.

One property – the former garda station on Barrack Street in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny – is due to be liable for the vacant site levy.

“A list of empty state properties should be furnished and where feasible, rented offices should be transferred to them,” Cowen said in a statement.

“The state has a duty to keep costs down and maintain a suitable property portfolio. From January we will have a ridiculous situation whereby one state property will be subject to the vacant site levy.

It’s important that the tax payer gets full value for money for the rent paid to private property owners. We should not get sucked into paying massive sums of money on rent while we have buildings gathering moss.

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    Mute NeilGoochFerriter
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    Oct 7th 2017, 10:31 PM

    A lot of young lads dream of being a pilot,
    I certainly did but i did not have 100k to try it out!
    A good friend is a pilot with a large airline and i get such enjoyment hearing his stories.
    A little jealous ill admit!

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    Mute Joe Conlon
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    Oct 7th 2017, 11:14 PM

    @NeilGoochFerriter: what kind of money can they expect to earn when they qualify?

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    Mute TheGrey Gimp
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    Oct 7th 2017, 11:15 PM

    @NeilGoochFerriter: why don’t the airlines do what the military do. Train you up on contact. If you don’t like it than you have to buy yourself out

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    Mute Martin M
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    Oct 8th 2017, 1:45 AM

    @Joe Conlon: 180 K it says in article

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    Mute James2015
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    Oct 8th 2017, 6:44 PM

    @Joe Conlon: 60k

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    Mute ForeverFeel1ng
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    Oct 24th 2017, 7:41 PM

    @TheGrey Gimp: That’s what Aer Lingus does. Ryanair are too cheap to even think about training staff.

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    Mute David Huston
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    Oct 7th 2017, 10:38 PM

    A profession likened to a bus driver by a certain so-called business mogul, He should realize that without minions he could never get his S class washed.

    118
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    Mute Stan
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    Oct 7th 2017, 11:52 PM

    As we spend fortunes educating people in third level colleges and often those graduates gratitude is to F off abroad and not contribute back to society. Why can’t the state do deal with pilot training colleges and pay for non academic young people and older who have great interest in becoming a pilot or even truck drivers etc since they spend 50-100 thousand on each graduate anyway. Why can’t social welfare or FAS etc first give aptitude test and send those who pass to learn to fly as those new pilots would pay high income tax back to the state unlike the fortunes spent on nurses and GPs etc who flee Ireland as soon as they qualify after we financed their costly education. Surely the state could help train the many non academic long term unemployed to become pilots as there will be big demand for pilots in Ireland for decades to come and all over the world hundreds of thousands needed over the next decade

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    Mute Graham Vincent
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    Oct 8th 2017, 12:34 AM

    @Stan: You’ve used the phrase “non-academic” twice, how easy do you imagine it is to qualify and work as a pilot?

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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    Oct 8th 2017, 1:13 AM

    @Stan:
    Don’t fall into the trap of believing Michael O’Leary when he claims it’s such an easy job even a monkey could do it.
    It’s unlikely that anyone who’s ‘non academic’ could ever become a pilot given the amount of study involved.

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    Mute John Considine
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    Oct 8th 2017, 9:15 AM

    @Stan: sure don’t the pilots f-off abroad every day, but they come home to their mammies every night.

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    Mute Geoff Blennerhassett
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    Oct 7th 2017, 10:19 PM

    Come on! Get the facts right. 100 hours in 28 days/900 a year block time. 60 hours in 7 days/110 in 14 and 198 in 28 days for duty hours are the limits. This information is widely available and 18 hours a week is rubbish.

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    Mute Christy Nolan
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    Oct 8th 2017, 12:51 AM

    @Geoff Blennerhassett:
    Comments are closed due to ongoing disagreements with the journals point of view

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    Mute Niall Ó Cofaigh
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    Oct 8th 2017, 2:26 AM

    @Geoff Blennerhassett: Thanks for that clarification.. I was curious as the 18 hours was obviously rubbish or the long haul pilots would have to wait a week to come home again,…..

    I wonder if the difference in figures is based upon air time excluding taxi time, gate to gate times and briefing to debriefing times and standby times…. there are really so many ways to count the times that confusion is bound to happen – so thanks for the clarification on the 18 hours thing,

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    Mute Micheál Ryan
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    Oct 8th 2017, 3:44 AM

    @Geoff Blennerhassett:

    I think this 18 hr/week bs came from MOL last week in a press conference? He’s taken his calculator and divided 900 hours by 52 weeks in a year…about 17.3 hrs. Now he’s conveniently forgotten 6 weeks annual leave. Plus the fact a pilot will have 8 days off a month on average which in total means they have about 20 weeks a year off. Now 900/32 weeks is closer to a normal working week. Maybe 30 hours flying and 2 hours duty before/after a flight brings the total closer to a forty hour week…Don’t always believe statistics…

    24
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    Mute Shane Corry
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    Oct 7th 2017, 11:34 PM

    The fact is that 10-20+ years ago the airlines used to cover all or most of the training costs whereas now it almost always falls to the pilots and their families, both the cost of getting their CPL (commercial pilot’s license) and then also most of the cost of getting the type-rating needed to fly a particular type of aircraft.

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    Mute Niall Lonergan
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    Oct 7th 2017, 10:44 PM

    Won’t be too long and a lot of aircraft will be flying themselves.

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    Mute Paddy Hayden
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    Oct 7th 2017, 11:03 PM

    @Niall Lonergan: I remember the advent of the computer age , we would never need paper again , paper production has increased by 400% in the last 40 years .
    Pilotless drones require a large team of operators , and they don’t even carry people .
    So I would say the theory of not needing pilots will be the same as the paper theory .

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    Mute Robert T Pooner
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    Oct 7th 2017, 11:14 PM

    @Paddy Hayden: Then they’re not pilotless drones, you silly moo.

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    Mute Paddy Hayden
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    Oct 7th 2017, 11:20 PM

    @Robert T Pooner: It’ll never happen , there will always be the need for human intervention , whether you want to call them pilotless , unmanned or autonomous the need for a human failsafe will always be there .

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    Mute Robert T Pooner
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    Oct 7th 2017, 11:32 PM

    @Paddy Hayden: I don’t think the need will be there but the desire may be. Anyway, once this hyperloop thing is up and running we won’t need to fly. Saul goodman

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    Mute Paddy Hayden
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    Oct 7th 2017, 11:49 PM

    @Robert T Pooner: I don’t think I’ll be around to see that .
    The progress of the artillery man in the war of the worlds springs to mind .

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    Mute Niall Ó Cofaigh
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    Oct 8th 2017, 2:30 AM

    @Niall Lonergan: by in large planes do fly themselves but the pilots are there to program the computers and take over when things go wrong – but there are issues still over who is flying the plane, the computer, the auto pilot or the human being…. I do not believe that we will have pilotless planes in the foreseeable future – the driverless car and bus and tram and train and even horse drawn carriage have not yet been overly successful (although it is hard to imagine the need for cyclist free bicycles…)

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    Mute Peter Jo
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    Oct 8th 2017, 3:15 AM

    @Niall Lonergan: that don’t mean I am getting on

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    Mute Malachy
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    Oct 8th 2017, 12:45 AM

    I know many many pilots. First there professional and responsible and it’s beating into them on day one. Second they love it, and would do nothing else. Ryanair just take advantage of the second fact.

    34
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    Mute Geoff Blennerhassett
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    Oct 7th 2017, 10:20 PM

    Come on! Get the facts right. 100 hours in 28 days/900 a year block time. 60 hours in 7 days/110 in 14 and 198 in 28 days for duty hours are the limits.

    24
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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Oct 7th 2017, 10:31 PM

    @Geoff Blennerhassett: Repeating the same claim twice doesn’t make it right…….

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    Mute Malachy
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    Oct 8th 2017, 12:37 AM

    @Geoff Blennerhassett: hang on need a calculator. Go again

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    Mute Niall Finucane
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    Oct 8th 2017, 1:51 AM

    @Malachy: he’s totally correct. Those are the limits and they do not include simulator, safety meetings, computer based training, medical checks, travel to and from base or travel to outstations, arriving to work an hour and half before departure, delays, turnarounds, post flight duties. 18 hours a week is total and utter shite. What is true is that you can put a maximum of 900hrs (and I think that’s 1000 in some places) into your logbook, which is pushback to on stand.

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    Mute Ray Ronan
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    Oct 8th 2017, 1:22 PM

    @Geoff Blennerhassett: Well said. You know more than the journalist who wrote this.

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    Mute Niall Ó Cofaigh
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    Oct 8th 2017, 2:36 AM

    The average school leaving kid does not have the money to obtain a commercial pilots licence… and working to pay for it takes years… The supply of trained pilots from air forces around the world is limited and the demand for commercial aviation pilots now exceeds this – the older way whereby an airline would sponsor a pilot training in return for contracted hours is no longer appealing to the low cost carriers – so there will continue to be a shortage of pilots… but the solution could be in the hands of the aircraft manufacturers – it is in their interest to see that there are properly trained pilots to fly their products, so maybe the industry needs to start looking at Boeing or Airbus for pilot training – then Michael O’ Leary could simply ring Mr Boeing and ask for another 120 pilots or defer the order on the next 120 B737s

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    Mute Rory J Leonard
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    Oct 8th 2017, 11:22 AM

    @Niall Ó Cofaigh:

    Not a bad suggestion!

    The direction Plane Pilot market is going, vis a vis supply and demand, how long before premiership style transfer fees start to apply to bring the best and most experienced to enable Global leaders in Aviation continue with expansion plans.

    No bank is going to advance €100 k to someone just out of college to train as a pilot!

    As Niall says, the solution lies within the airline industry for the massive investment required to be coughed up.

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    Mute Nurse on call
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    Oct 8th 2017, 12:21 AM

    It’s a bit like nursing… the dream to help people but I can’t because the system is in tatters. Same as teaching…pupils with no respect for the teacher. The public who have no respect when drunk for out A and E Team. We can all complain but best just to get in with it.

    21
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    Mute Noel James Doherty
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    Oct 7th 2017, 11:57 PM

    You ever been in a cockpit before Joey, no sir I’ve never been in a plane before. You ever seen a grown man naked?

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    Mute Kevin Phipps
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    Oct 8th 2017, 11:17 AM

    Journalist- please run your article through the fact check department in journal.ie before publication

    60 duty hours in 7 days

    100 flying hours in 28 days

    “The lack of new pilots come despite those in the jobs commanding earnings of up to €180,000 a year, while restrictions on those flying within Europe limit pilots to a maximum of 18 hours a week.”

    12
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    Mute General Shit Talking
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    Oct 8th 2017, 2:00 PM

    @Kevin Phipps: Journalist… “Person who copies and pastes from other sources”.

    FTFY

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    Mute Jon Rodgers
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    Oct 8th 2017, 1:48 PM

    18 hours a week? I must tell my employer straight away that they’re illegally working me!
    I’ll give an example . Last week I signed on for duty at 0530. I flew a short haul flight and back to home base. Finished work at 1545.
    Total time “in the air” was 6 hours 15 mins. But I actually worked for 10 hours 15 mins.
    But only the 6 hours 15 mins counted towards the fabled “18 hours per week”. The rest goes uncounted.
    Next week, I will fly a 16 hour flight, and after 48 hours in a hotel, fly another 16 hours back home. That’s 32 hours of flight time (plus duty time) in 4 days…. A lot longer than the mythical “18 hours a week”.
    And after 2 days off… do it all again.

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    Mute Spailpín
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    Oct 8th 2017, 10:33 AM

    What angers me most is that having invested up to 100K in your piloting career your cant even ofset it against income tax.

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    Mute Dave Byrne
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    Oct 8th 2017, 2:20 PM

    While the cost can be prohibitive for a lot of people when they see €100k up front cost,The training can be done on a modular basis all the lads I know working for Ryanair did their training while holding down a full time job.
    Ok it will take longer to obtain the licence were as the lads doing it on a full time basis can have it done within 2 years,As for the likes of Ryanair the pilots are paid on block hours.
    So they only get paid from gear up to gear down not taxi to the stands or RWY threshold or turnarounds, Also it’s early starts getting up at 4am for a 6am departure etc.

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    Mute Dave Byrne
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    Oct 8th 2017, 2:22 PM

    My advice to anyone who wants to train as a pilot is go for a spin in a Cessna etc to see if you like it,And if you do then do the class 1 medical(Commercial pilot ) to see if anything comes up that could disqualify you from flying.

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    Mute Anthony R Fildes
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    Oct 8th 2017, 8:30 PM

    FFS Journal fact check !!! Ask someone in the business instead of assuming O’Leary’s statements are accurate… €180,000 a year ? Maybe, after you’ve reached the top of a THIRTY FIVE YEAR pay scale..

    New cadets or direct entrants can expect poor pay, long hours and an exhausting schedule thanks to the publics insatiable demand for low fares and Mr O’Leary’s pathological need to fulfil it.

    3
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